Most UFO hoax operations, when faced with indisputable evidence of their fraud, usually respond in one of two ways: ignore it (Third Phase of Moon), or respond as if it didn’t exist (Mister Enigma, WTF Flow, Secureteam 10, Fausto UFO). When debunker Scott Brando, aka ufoofinterest.org revealed professional CGI artist Jean “J. H.” Wzgarda of France as the person behind hoax channel Section 51 2.0, Wzgarda took a different approach; he pretended he had nothing to do with it. Wzgarda has enjoyed widespread support for his antics, most recently for his “UFO Over Large Hadron Collider” hoax, from British tabloid news sites. I suppose he was a bit shocked to be exposed after freely, profitably and anonymously faking it for so long. This conversation ensued over Facebook chat:

Hi, I see that you and Ufo of interest published my name on your page. Who are you ? Why ? What did I do to receive your hate ? Do you know what is harassing on internet ? That’s what you’re doing with me and I want to know why you’re doing this ? Why you’re attacking me ?…

You may think it’s ok to create fake UFO shots and claim they’re real, but people involved in real research, trying to find real answers find it offensive. You should stop immediately.

Who are you to claim that it’s me ? Are you crazy ? It’s not me. I agree with your point of view but this is not me. Must be a kid or idiot hacker using my name as CGI artist to create his website anonymously. Stop publishing my name and my works on your page, they have nothing to do with section 51. This is harassment and defamation. I’m going to report your publications to Facebook for harassment. Do you think I have time to lose with that ?

Don’t play that game with me. I took screen capture of your facebook page. You published pictures of me and my work without my authorization with the aim to discredit me and my name. I saw Ufo of Interest too and all sites which seem to be in your network. All that for why ? Because you think that you have found some guy you can hate without limits, because of your frustrations about ufos and section 514. You’ve got the wrong guy. It’s not me and stop publishing false informations about me. It’s YOU the faker !

Sorry, that’s not me. What does proof me that you didn’t trick the data on this site ? My company is known on internet, anybody could have taken our informations to create an account knowing that we do production and visual effects. I will investigate too. And that doesn’t change the fact that you or anybody else hasn’t the right to make freely harassment against a person on internet or facebook or twitter. Even to publish images and names without authorization. What is your name ? Who are you ? That’s not fair, you pretend you know me and I know nothing about you. That’s completely silly !

I’m not interested in playing games with you, Jean. Obviously you don’t intend to stop creating hoax videos, so you’re just going to have to become accustomed to people knowing who you are and what you’re doing. If that bothers you, then find another hobby that doesn’t involve being a liar and a fraud.

You must be joking. Are you serious ?!! Who are you ? Are you scared to give me your name ? What does allow you to attack me personnally like that ? That’s sure that it’s easier to put the name of somebody in the dirt when you stay in the shadow.

If you believe this may possibly be a case of mistaken identity, conisder that Mr. Wzgarda maintains his personal web site on the same server as section51-ufo.com. He is a CGI artist with a fetish for American military imagery, significant because the first incarnation of his web channel, Section 51, was focused on military footage as background for his UFO hoaxes. He got a lot of play with his “UFO Attacks Taliban Base” hoax among others. That channel was removed from YouTube because (best guess) Google decided that exploiting combat footage of real soldiers really risking their real lives wasn’t so cool. And there’s this, from his web site:

Also around this time, Mr. Brando discovered that Mr. Wzgarda (@JhWzgarda) was following Section 51 (@section_51) on Twitter.

I’m no psychologist, but it seems to me that in the face of overwhelming evidence, Wzgarda’s claim that he has nothing to do with Section 51 is absolutely nuts. Unlike other hoaxers, at least he acknowledges what’s being done under the Section 51 brand is wrong. Perhaps compared to the blanket denial offered by others in his profession, that’s a little nuts as well.

Thanks to an alert from Isaac Koi, Youtube hoax channel Section 51 seems to have shifted its stance on what exactly it’s trying to accomplish. Previously Section 51 was content to let people believe they were putting forth footage of real events– note the UFO Attacks Taliban Camp clip that got a lot of play online. At least one of their videos had “REAL!!!” at the end of the title, but this has since disappeared. Now, Section 51 seems to have redefined itself. In the About area of the channel, we now see this:

“Section 51” is an independent reality web-series that premiered on August 2013 on Youtube, and ran for two seasons. With a total of 17 million views and 30.000 subscribers, “Section 51” is one of the best UFO channels on Youtube. Based on reality video footage and sometimes VFX, the concept of the show is : Hoax or Real ?…

The concept of the show is “Hoax or Real.” What does that even mean? Is the “web series” a guessing game that earn the winners big prizes? I parse this as “well, you caught us making hoaxes but… that was totally our plan all along!” Naturally many people were left feeling betrayed, as evidenced on the Section 51 discussion page [update: YouTube account deleted] where the producers spend a good deal of time responding to insulting comments from outraged viewers.

The channel description continues:

We launched that new idea of reality web-series with UFO and Sci-Fi subjects in order to expose the reality of UFOs. We call that kind of event UFOs because we are totally bemused about what this could be ? Sometimes we have no words to explain what we see, sometimes we can see that it’s just hoax. The purpose of that web-series is to make you ask yourself these questions about UFOs… until the real contact happens one day !

If you can make sense of that word salad, you’re more conceptually flexible than I am. Section 51 doesn’t even know what the term “web series” means. It’s a collection of episodes around a common theme, usually with a storyline of some kind, at least within each episode. A web series definitely is not a collection of military clips with visual effects added, with no storyline and not a word of dialogue.

In spite of all the negative response and waffling about their purpose, Section 51 has obviously been encouraged by the number of subscribers their charade has taken in, and is now looking for money to do more of the same by promoting this link [update: Patreon account deleted] on their channel’s main page. Their plea for funds is laughably devoid of specifics on what you will get for your money. According to their Patreon page, “As a Patron you’ll receive many exclusive bonuses per month unavailable to the public. See below for details!”and then gives no details, just vague references to future endeavors: “This year we’re working on a TON of amazing projects for you guys.”

In a way, it’s kind of refreshing that a hoaxer has dropped the charade: they’re making hoax videos, and they’re in it for the money.

Things don’t seem to be going so smoothly, however. The promo video on the Section 51 channel’s main page features the following text:

This is a message to all our subscribers. No one can intimidate you. Section 51’s channel is temporarily limited. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing is hidden that will not be made known. We have another alternative. It is called Aurora 51. Subscribe to Aurora 51 and discover new exclusive videos of Section 51. A new way to support us and continue to follow your favorite Section 51’s program. We’ll be back soon on Aurora 51 and Section 51. Thank you!

(I just saved you two minutes of eyestrain watching text on a flashing background mixed in some shadowy logo porn.)

Did Youtube get complaints about Section 51’s content and restrict them, similar to what happened to NDestination Unknown? Hard to say. I’m not sure what their policy is on such matters. I don’t know how splitting off to a second channel helps Section 51, but they must have done it for a reason.

This whole scenario reinforces what I’ve said about UFO hoaxers: they do this because they have a desperate desire to make legitimate entertainment– art, even– but are too inept or lack the motivation to actually do the work to accomplish that goal. They’re desperate to have eyes on their work, even if they have to lie to get the views. The online UFO community is just the easiest mark they could find.

Search UFOTheater.com

Search for:

Donate

While creating hoaxes is profitable, exposing the lies is not. Using the hoaxers' video to debunk it prevents us from monetizing our work on YouTube. If you enjoy UFO Theater, please support us with a donation and help spread the truth. No amount is too small. Thank you!